#LearnLockpickingWithAlice lesson 8: single-pin picking.

[alice@lgbtqia.space]

#LearnLockpickingWithAlice lesson 8: single-pin picking. The picking purists pursuit.

*professor voice* Single-pin picking is the Platonic ideal of lockpicking. You exploit the inevitable imperfections of the world, deftly manipulating each pin—defeating the designer's best efforts to thwart you—until, finally, it bends to your skill and determination. *pop*

If raking is about rapidly guessing semi-random numbers, then single-pin picking is about taking methodical, educated guesses until you discover the correct code.

A lot of the skill of single-pin picking has already been covered in previous lessons, but here's a refresher to tie it together before moving to security pins in the next lesson.

Because manufacturing is imperfect, we can apply a *small* rotational force to a lock's core (using a turning tool), which causes the (imperfectly aligned) pins closest to the wall of the lock's housing to bind up.

We can then feel around with our pick to gather information about the internal state of the lock. We hunt for the pin that is binding the hardest, and then leverage it towards the housing until the driver pin is above the shear line (and the key pin is below).

We keep track of the internal state by remembering which pins we've moved from their default state, and whether they're binding, set, or overset. If they're binding, we seek to set them. If they're overset we release tension on the core until they're back to their at-rest state. When they're all set, the lock opens.

The biggest skill involved is in learning to differentiate between pin states, followed by correctly tensioning the lock, and remembering the internal states of the pins.